I’m not perfect, contrary to popular belief. And, I’m not the parent that thinks my children are perfect. In fact, I know they aren’t, I live with them.

But, I am the type of parent that tries to teach my children what my parents taught me. One of which is…do the right thing. I know, that’s a loaded lesson but eventually, I would imagine, it’s something that sticks and is called upon when dealing with certain life events, as trivial and mundane as some of them might be.

I understand, you’re probably tapping your fingers on your desktop, anxious for me to get to my point. Oh, I will. I promise.

Dang, though. I keep forgetting to only do one space after a period. Ah…I digress…

Back to doing the right thing lesson.

Part of that “doing the right thing” is that sometimes you have to do things you have no interest in doing. All in the name of doing the right thing.

For example…and this is where I begin to make my point…kids birthday parties.

There is always going to be a kid or two in class that you or your kid doesn’t necessarily enjoy the company of. Normal, no? I mean, you aren’t ever going to like or get along with everyone you cross paths with, right?

But, say for example, your kid is having a birthday party, OK. And, you ask your kid who they want to invite. The kid responds that they want everyone there, except for one or two of the classmates.

What’s your response?

Mine is…if you are going to invite the whole class, that means those kids you aren’t exactly fond of have to be invited too. It’s the right thing to do.

You might be wondering why I’m bringing this up.

Well, you see, it has come to my 8 year old sons attention that he was left out of a birthday party this weekend. He found out because all of his friends were invited and they were talking it about it.

My son, in turn, brought it to my attention. And, I will be bringing it to the parents attention, to be sure.

Here’s why I decided to bring it to my blogs attention…

Because I want to let all the parents who do this to know what happens to the kid who was left out.

My son already has insecurities. He’s 8. He shouldn’t. He should be footloose and fancy free.

These kids have so much time ahead of them full of rejection, failures and shortcomings…of course, mixed with successes. Why don’t we, as parents, try to insure that we can, in every way possible, make their road less rocky as they take their journey through this thing called life?

I blame the parents. Without a doubt.

My son feels like crap. He is confused because this kid is someone who, at first wasn’t a friend but, slowly they are becoming friends. Or so my son thought.

I wish that parents would take a look at their children when making this type of decision. Think about how their kid would feel if they were one of the only ones that weren’t invited to a birthday party. How would your kid feel if all his friends were talking about something they were looking forward to and your kid was just sitting there sadly, dejectedly?

That’s my kid this was done to.

I won’t do it to your kid when it’s my sons birthday. I see how my son feels and I would NEVER do that to another kid. And believe me, we’ve fought every single year when planning his party because there is ALWAYS a kid or two he doesn’t want.

I go by the belief though that if you are going to invite the class, you invite the WHOLE class.

So invitations go out to everyone. Even the ones he hopes decline the invite.

At least they are given the option though.

So, my point is this. And it’s quite simple really. Another one of those little lessons I was taught when growing up and I try to teach my imperfect children…

Do unto others and you want done unto you…and your children.

Take a look at your kid. How would you feel if this was done unto your kid?